Tharja
Tharja is a character appearing in Fire Emblem: Awakening. Despite having a bit role in her game of origin, she's become one of the most popular characters in the series, which has led to official merchandise and requests for her to appear in Fire Emblem Warriors and even Smash. Tharja in Awakening Tharja has one of the smallest roles of all first generation units in the main plot. She appears as an enemy in chapter 9, Chrom recruits her, and that's it. Considering she's now one of the most popular characters in the series, it seems a little odd how unimportant she is, but there are definitely reasons she's popular. More on that below. In her support conversations, she's characterized by her obsession with Robin and her cursing everyone and everything, including her own daughter. More on that below as well. Also, she gets a fanservice swimsuit CG in the DLC. Somehow, NoA cesnoring this made them the worst company ever. If you can't look at your waifu in a swimsuit, then why even live? Tharja in Fates Tharja was so popular that she, like Gaius and Cordelia, appeared as a "pre-incarnation" in Fates named Rhajat. Get it? It's an anagram of Tharja! Isn't that brilliant? Anyway, Fates somewhat explains the obsession with Robin. Emphasis on the somewhat. It's stupid, but this is Fates, so of course it's stupid. Basically, Corrin (who's apparently a "pre-incarnation" of Robin) saves her from a bunch of Risen Faceless, and she becomes obsessed with Corrin. Yes, it's extremely contrived. It's still a better explanation than how in Awakening, she randomly had a dream of Robin. Anyway, she decides that she'll follow Corrin to the end of time, and should she die, she sees the desert where Chrom recruits her. She's apparently so hellbent on Corrin that she actively reincarnates as Tharja to be by his side. No, none of this makes any sense. Oh, and she's one of the two gay options in Fates. Like Corrin and Niles, Rhajat is canonically bi. It's great that FE has gay options, it really is, but Niles and Rhajat are the absolute worst options. Niles is basically into torture and pretty slimy in general while Rhajat is an obsessive stalker. Fortunately, Echoes handled this much better by making Leon, a decent human being, gay, but that's irrelevant. Also, if female Corrin marries Rhajat, you lose out on Kana just like how if male Corrin marries Niles, you lose out on both Nina and Kana, so you should only marry them if you want the full support conversations anyway. Tharja in Tokyo Mirage Sessions ♯FE Tharja appears as one of the few heroic mirages in Tokyo Mirage Sessions. In fact, she, Virion, and Chrom are the good ones from Awakening. The game's actually bent more toward Shadow Dragon. Yeah, we're just as shocked as you. She appears as Kiria's mirage and apparently created Tiki or something. She's also shy. Tharja in Heroes Tharja has a bit story role in Heroes where she stalks Robin onto the battlefield. Which is hilarious, right guys? She also won the third voting gauntlet and beat Robin, proving that being a girl > being in Smash. At the time of writing, Ike's pretty much our only hope of a male ever winning the gauntlet. Tharja in Warriors Hahaha, no. Tharja is most likely not playable in Warriors' base roster. Despite her popularity, Awakening characters are no longer being revealed, and going by the roster apparently having 25 heroes and the reveal patterns so far, she won't be in. And she wasn't! But she is DLC. And a Robin clone, as expected. See you at the end of the month! Character Tharja's popularity seems like an enigma if you can avoid looking at any pictures of her. She has virtually no good traits, and whenever the game tries to cast her in a postiive light, other inconsistencies (it's Awakening, why would you expect good writing) harm even that. She curses virtually everyone she comes into contact with. Yes, everyone. This includes her own daughter, Noire. See, in the future, Tharja cursed Noire so much that she had to make a talisman that allowed Noire to become bipolar or something. Yeah, just ignore that. It doesn't make sense in-game either. Present Tharja theorizes that future Tharja loved Noire, but considering Noire's father support, which we're about to go into, that doesn't really mean much. The important part is the daughter abuse, which screwed Noire up pretty badly. But that was in the future! Tharja's not actually a child abuser yet! Not quite. If you read Noire's support with her father, you learn that Noire is Tharja's personal test subject for curses. So even in the present, Tharja abuses and experiments on her daughter. It shows up in the event tile conversations, too! And when her husband tells her to stop, she curses him too. So when he tries to stop her curses, she naturally attacks him in a far more vicious way than the future Tharja ever did. The point being, Tharja abuses her own child and spouse. Virtually everyone else in the army too, but who cares about that? This whole thing is already a huge negative. But wait, there's more! What is Tharja's other defining trait? Is it how Heroes has her attempting to become cordial and friendlier to the others? No, it's her obsession with Robin. Even calling it an obsession is generous, honestly. She stalks Robin every second of the day. Robin even shows up in her supports with Frederick and Vaike, and even when she's about to marry Lon'qu, she's prepared to go right back to stalking Robin. In her Gaius support, she asks him to steal a strand of Robin's hair, which she's confirmed to have in the DLC, and when she marries Libra, she says that Robin will always come above him. She pretty much says the same thing to Henry. Stalking isn't a remotely good trait, but since this is Awakening, no one ever calls her out on it. And then there's her support chain with Robin. Regardless of gender, it ends with her cursing Robin, who falls asleep. And then we get this gem. It's still not over yet! Should Tharja marry Robin, not only is it never addressed what she did to him (let's be honest. With Tharja, it's not hard to imagine), but we get this beautiful line during the confession: What a great, compelling character and a good person. The Real Reason She's Popular I mean, just look at her. It should be pretty obvious why. You'll note that most fanservicey characters in Awakening either have the impractical armor characters like Sumia and Cordelia have or are exposed in a way that doesn't make them look exposed, like Tharja, Cherche, and Olivia. With Tharja, however, her lack of a wardrobe is much more blatant (never mind that since she lives in a desert, she should be protecting her skin from the sun's rays). The only character clearly wearing less than Tharja is Nowi, and most people have at least some decency (or at least realize the "she's really 1000 years old argument doesn't stop you from being labeled a phile, for good reason). With Tharja, however, fanservice on her especially is emphasized. The Japanese version of the game even says that she has the nicest body in the army, and who could forget the legendary "boingy bits" conversation? To no one's surprise, most art of her emphasizes this. "But she doesn't like being seen! She covers herself up and hides a lot!" Yeah, that's a fanservice trope. Just look up reluctant fanservice. And it doesn't even make sense with Tharja, considering she willingly dresses that way. Olivia either, but this isn't her page. And then there's her personality. Maybe the fans of these games are just lonely? But people seem to actively like that she's a stalker, to the point where her obsession has been described as "unrequited love." So between fanservice and relentless stalking, especially with the people Awakening was targeted toward, it should be pretty clear why she's popular. There was actually an uproar when NoA put a cape in front of her because some people are so depraved that seeing her in a swimsuit is life or death. Trivia *Like fan favorite Cordelia, she has a figure. Unlike Cordelia, whose figure tries to make the most with poor wardrobe, Tharja's instead has her hunched over a stack of books with her body on full display, as if even those who made the statue realized that that's all she has going for her. *She placed third for women in the CYL poll for Heroes (and the prior Awakening poll), but come the voting gauntlet, Camilla ousted her in the first round. *She had a trophy in the 3DS version of Smash, but it was cut. *Someone sent kid hate messages with snuff images in them several times because he had the gall to criticize Tharja. Keep those letters coming! Category:Fire Emblem Characters Category:Fire Emblem: Awakening Characters Category:Fire Emblem Heroes Characters Category:Tokyo Mirage Sessions ♯FE Characters Category:Wanted Newcomers Category:Fanservice Category:Waifus Category:Bull Waifus Category:Trash Category:Mistakes Category:Waifu Emblem Characters Category:NSFW Category:Fire Emblem Warriors Characters Category:Mages Category:Fire Users Category:Characters Who Have Been Censored